U.S. top court takes up religious dispute over Maryland cross

The U.S. Supreme Court on
Friday waded into a new fight over the separation of church and
state, agreeing to decide whether a towering cross-shaped war
memorial erected in 1925 on public land in Maryland violates the
Constitution's ban on government endorsement of religion.

The justices agreed to hear two separate appeals of a lower
court's ruling that the memorial violated the Constitution's
First Amendment's prohibition on the government favoring one
religion, saying the memorial - dubbed the "peace cross" - is
inherently religious because of its shape like a Christian
cross.